Updated: H&M Accused of Underpaying Cambodian Garment Workers

There's a lot of excitement right now about H&M's forthcoming collaboration with Maison Martin Margiela, but the company is coming under some scrutiny in its native Sweden this week.

Swedish TV documentary program Kalla Fakta accused the fast fashion retailer of not paying Cambodian garment workers a decent living wage, according to WWD. The miminum wage for these workers is currently $61 per month, which is less than 25% of what is considered a living wage.

H&M fired back at the program, saying in a statement that they are actually at the "forefront" of fighting for better minimum wages for workers in countries that manufacture its clothes. “We want a permanent change, negotiated between workers and employers," H&M said. "This should be done by collective agreement that all workers in a country could benefit from."

The Clean Clothes Campaign, a Netherlands-based labor union alliance, thinks H&M could do more. Trade unions in Cambodia have recently asked for the minimum wage to be raised to $131 per month, and they're looking for H&M's public support for the initiative. No word yet on what H&M's next steps will be. We've reached out to them for comment and will update when we hear back.

Even $131 a month seems absurdly low, but it's definitely a positive step that companies are being forced to have these dialogues.

UPDATE: H&M sent us a lengthy rebuttal to its detractors, stating that they are indeed working to get higher wages for Cambodian--and other low-paid workers--throughout the world. Per the release:

Our ambition is clearly set out in our Code of Conduct: “Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity”. During our factory inspections we check that our suppliers are paying at least the statutory minimum wage, and our aim is therefore to influence the wage issue such that the minimum wage is increased to a level that represents a living wage.

They further note that they are launching a new initiative in 2013 to "strengthen the dialogue between factory management and workers so that they reach agreement by negotiation and agreements rather than through confrontation," in addition to working with the UN and its Better Factories program.

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An investigative report out of Brazil has found that Zara's Brazilian suppliers contracted with factories which subjected workers to hazardous "slave-like" working conditions and employed at least one girl aged 14.
According to Repórter Brasil, who broke the story, and Made in Brazil (who translated the report), AHA Indústria e Comércio de Roupas Ltda., a supplier that Zara uses to contract with factories to produce their garments in Brazil, has been under investigation by São Paulo’s Bureau of Labor and Employment since May. The Bureau of Labor and Employment found that 52 people were working in unsafe and unsanitary conditions at at one of the factories contracted by AHA Indústria to produce pants for Zara Brazil. Workers were made to work 16-hour shifts in windowless factories, earning only between R$274 and R$460 a month (that's $170 to $286), which is below Brazil's minimum wage of R$545 ($339) .
In another inspection, a 14-year-old girl was found working "under slave-like conditions" at another factory in São Paulo contracted by AHA Indústria for Zara.

Over the weekend there was a tragic garment factory fire in Bangladesh, which killed seven people. It's the second deadly factory fire in the region in just two months, after another factory fire claimed the lives of over 110 people in November. Since then, there's been a general call to action: Human rights groups have increased their demands for global reform, governments are considering putting tighter restrictions on overseas manufacturers, and retailers are rethinking how they approach manufacturing.

I woke up this morning to news that there had been yet another garment factory fire in Bangladesh, which killed 8 night shift workers. A collective shaking our heads is in order, before we get into the very necessary next steps that fashion brands, the Bangladeshi government, garment labor groups, and we, the “fashionistas,” must take. With 900 garment workers dead and counting, the Rana Plaza factory collapse on April 24 is the worst disaster in the garment industry’s history. Sadly, there are no guarantees it is the last. Just after the collapse, I’d called for brands to start holding their factories accountable, and for us to resist buying fast fashion.
The glaring truth: boycotting brands does further damage to this delicate situation.